Kunming car owner converts cargo truck into “small house”

A car owner in Kunming has converted a cargo truck into a mobile home. There is 8.5 square meters of usable area, and one can cook, sleep, go online, and watch television in the car. This mobile home including the vehicle and renovations cost under 130,000 yuan, and because of its low cost and comprehensive features, netizens have called it history’s most niu mobile home.

Sigh…now that the media has exposed this, they won’t be able to live in it anymore… Just wait, a relevant department will find them to have a talk.

网易四川省成都市手机网友:

This clearly isn’t something that was made because they don’t have money to buy a house. This is made by people who have money and are so ball-achingly bored with nothing to do so they can go vacationing when they have free time.

世界最终是那群孙子们的 [网易福建省泉州市网友]:

Good thing the prostitute [in Chinese, a pun for “journalist/reporter”] had a conscience this time and added a mosaic to the vehicle’s license plate number. Otherwise, [the owners] will be fined again by the transportation authorities.

网易广东省东莞市手机网友:

This kind of self-renovated mobile home will fall apart after not long. You can see it in the photos, many places weren’t designed to absorb shock/movement.

looks nice to me, is it comparable that nice houses in my city in canada are starting around 3,200,000 RMB?

GodsHammer

That’ll get you a mediocre apartment in shanghai…

carlstar

3 million will get you 100 square meters within the inner ring and maybe more. That is pretty big for an apartment. More than mediocre espeacilly if you take the 200 grand and use it to redesign the place.

We started as a species as nomadic hunters and gatherers. We then discovered agriculture and in the transition stopped nomadic life.

Following this came industrialization which has lead to today’s “mobile life”.

Because of our life today, we spend more time going (off our property) then staying.

Now we have carhouses. Does this mean we were right the first time, being nomadic?

Tengu

Interesting point…salient as always, except for the titty songs which I so enjoy.

Question, how will telecommuting affect this, some many are already tethered to some sort of device and/or location either literally or metaphorically.

We may find out if we were right the first time in the next 50 years. Wandering pods of blue tooth enabled zombies roaming aimlessly from signal to signal in search of a clue.

What will we hunt and gather if we the paradigm shifts and we finally have to turn our backs on what we now know. Do you think this current generation is ready to survive?

I’m not thinking “Quest for Fire”, I going with “Mad Max”, we’re already a nut hair away from eating our young as it is.

Rick in China

The masses as a whole don’t know how to do ‘things’.

That being, said, they don’t need to. Look at countries like Libya, in the middle of civil war with some external forces bombarding infrastructure, there are people who have worked to restore internet / mobile services very quickly. Knowledge is compounding, and it would take an *extremely* devastating event to wipe out everyone capable in any particular skill-set and all related information. That means that should something happen that presented a “Mad Max”, “Eli”, or “Postman” type situation, I’d imagine it would be nowhere near as tech-lifestyle ending where we turn into scavengers fighting for scraps without the ability to resume somewhat modern-day normal life. Throughout history civilizations have been wiped out, infrastructure completely destroyed, and people left with nothing that resembled their normal lifestyle — but we, as a species, always seem to rebuild and progress. It doesn’t require everyone to know everything, but some to know something.

Just John

I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!
– Schultz, Hogans heroes

Agreed in one sense but since we’re simply theorizing, a single solar event could render all communications unusable. One unknown asteroid could effectively destroy what we now know. Apocalyptic, yes, catastrophic , yes.

There are also a lot of loose nukes out there unaccounted for in he FSU, something will happen with one of them eventually.

What will the affect of a major city becoming lost in a fireball, New York City, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow. what are the ramifications and reactions going to be.

You think we emptied our nuclear silos with disarmament, maybe some of the ones they knew about…the rest, not a chance.

We’re already experiencing shifts in climate which can render currently arable lands into deserts…it’ll be subtle, it’ll be slow and the true endgame will not happen in our lifetimes.

Water and food will be the next oil.

We could easily have a pandemic which would ravage the species. Several of them are enjoying their time in the sun as we speak..MRSA is doing just fine.

The found a virus last week can jump from waterborne to airborne without much trouble, first time in history.

I liked “The Book of Eli”, always enjoy Denzel, his tuxedo from “American Ggangster ” is on eBay.

“Man on Fire.”, totally off course, but great movie.

Tengu

One addition, never in history have we had the capability to make the planet unusable after any sort of even, we do have that capability now.

Rick in China

There are historical catastrophes recorded – cities engulfed by the earth in quakes, volcanic eruption, etc. It has impact – but not long-term impact, generations turn these stories into paragraphs of a history book. Solar flares, while awesome, could definitely do massive damage to earth – sure, electromagnetic radiation would be able to wipe out satellite/radio communication immediately – but to think we’d not be able to recover is way too doomsday for me.

RE: making the planet unusable..
Well, I’d counter by saying that nothing is ‘unusable’, just usable in different ways – humans, much like life in general, have a remarkable ability to adapt when there’s no option. Maybe we’d morph triple titties like Total Recall, but I think we’d survive most ‘realistic’ scenarios without turning into mad max..

Anon

At worst it’s back to an agrarian society with stone tools.
Decommission those nukes and nuke plants before something like in the above listed movies happens. We’d be better off living in caves without electricity than dealing with Chernobyls and Fukushimas.

Tengu

@Anon.

Agreed.

Do you think the full impact of Chernobyl is even known yet? I believe they estimate the deaths at around 400,000 that can be attributed to Chernobyl.

Fukushima is being so tightly controlled by the government and it’s much worse than Chernobyl by a very large magnitude.

My point was earlier that when catastrophes happened before, the land was left livable, and still arable, but now we are talking “half lives”….

We do not have that cushion any longer…

TheTravellingMan

er … how do you wash in that thing

Dr. Dust Cell

carwash with windows open

Xero

Sofa,

Now that I think about it I haven’t seen any RV’s around china.
Any specific reason for this or does it just come down to price?

Xero

aww cmon said 0 when I refreshed.

Just John

It said 0?

Odd, first post was about 7 hours ago, so shortly after I got into work, and now I am going home.

Check the tubes man, the other comments may be in your toilet or something.

JAYJAY

Where is the loo? Caravans can empty theirs at service stations. What is he going to do about that? Not that I want to know.

Name (required)

I think my sofa is better.

me

sha fa
chinese just want to be like americans. so it goes.

Just John

Really?

Shouldn’t they be speaking American and voting on their president while they have sex with their cousin in their trailer in the Ozarks?

Brett Hunan

You left out mullets, thinks Muslim a race, thinks all Asians are “ChinaMen”, thinks Indians and Ay-rabs are the same, thinks all non Chinese are Americans, thinks that they should go back to America, member of aryan brothehood- Chinese sect, hates non Chinese, smoke cigarettes, bad teeth….

I guess the only thing we’re missing from the equation is Bible thumpin’

Just John

I have the beer and pretzels, do you have the Mormon missionaries? Or are you more of a Holy Rollers kind of guy?

I liked motorhomes when I was little, my neighbours had one we would play in all the time… Still wouldn’t wanna live in one though

Kip

Group them together and hit it with a tornado.

Alikese

Perfect rape van!

Just John

Want some candy?
I have lots of it inside my van here.

Anon

There can also be space, if each Municipality creates a sq km or few parking areas of 5000 sq ft each where caravans or modified trucks can put down tents or connecting fold back awnings, the mobility and pricing would be well worth it.

Meanwhile multistorey carparks could also be built for use by these modified homes, meaning you get to choose your neighbours rather than ‘have to fit in’ or suffer abusive neighbours if any.

See the shockingly expensive USD$500 EDAR here which is an over glorified profiteering PRODUCT for city dwellers with a guilty conscience or a potentially faddish in-thing with the faux-charitable (differentiated from those really sincere in their donation by not needing to be prompted).

130K is quite alot for the ‘Ant Tribe’ in general – these are the upper end people, wait till the tung oil/bamboo covered pedal driven trishaw with EDAR on a ‘pull cart’ format is available for 5000 RMB, then you’ll see a craze.

I bet that the Chinese can produce EDARs for a fraction of the cost, and use tung infused bamboo instead of pollutive plastic. Any philanthropists (actors or businessmen) ready to meet the proposition of 10,000 units of CHINESE Eco-Friendly 100% Organic EDARs? . . . ) source from bamboo umbrella makers who already have the manufacturing infrastructure, skilled workforce and materials the result should be the price of 10 umbrellas (i.e. US$10.00 each EDAR? – we are 50 times more efficient . . . ) :

20 times cheaper solution. Modify the back seat and trunk of your vehicle for less than 6500 RMB and stick a 500 RMB Chinese EDAR on it. Homeless issues solved if the government has parking solutions – everyone will have a place to sleep at least – without the unpleasant ambience of low cost environments.

MrT

Thought that was joke but its for real.
Excellent concept.

darkandlovelykissedbythe

Anon,
Took a look at the link you provided. China probably could produce the EDAR for a fraction of the cost, just got through watching an indie film with one of the Fugee’s going undercover as a homeless person in L.A. There is an increase in the number of people who are in need of affordable housing, and no doubt the need will increase well into the future. Wanted to include a link that I think you might find interesting.http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles/posttsunami.htm

Anon

Thank you very much ! The advantage and appeal of an EDAR or (foldable tent version based on the famous Chinese Tung Oil Umbrella) is the mobility mainly. But consider lobbying or even running for candidacy on the below :

Let the government distribute land to feed themselves with and that will be their work and sustenance. Who says they are jobless? The state sequestering land makes citizens homeless and have no avenue to grow their own food. Then government wanting to control everything pretends to give food stamps until the nation goes bankrupt. Doesn’t the country belong to all citizens? By extension, all that land also belongs to the citizens and should be distributed for growing food at least.

If youth or citizens are hungry and jobless, give them land to do subsistence farming which will occupy their time. Making food for themselves will be their job. So simple and free of cost. But do not bother with infrastructure which will cost alot. (yes dig your own pit system, your government can’t afford toilets yet)

It will be frontier style living but no more food stamp fees, no high crime rates just because people have no land to work, better than national bankruptcy of homeless in tent cities everywhere!

Declare redistribution of land as Evo Morales did. Those who are too lazy to work their fields can die and at that point government could say, they had land and if they were too lazy to cultivate even their own food, they deserved it. WTF is USA or the West about these days? Can’t politicians think?

The Soviet subsistence paradigm if superior to Capitalism where the term-limitless oligarchs and nepotists (much like aristocracy in a absolutist system) and a handful of plutocrats own all the land, but everyone else is crammed into cities being told they can’t own land which is plentiful but are allowed to drain the state coffers and incur national debt into bankruptcy.

Politics has made it necessary for Pres.O to deal with the horrible legacy Pres.O had inherited. And it began in 1917 when the Fed-Fiat Reserve was formed and was likely cemented when JFK was assassinated. Just remember not to vote plutocrats (check this link below) and only vote for a Congressman that will vote for distribution of land as detailed above :

10 richest members of the Senate
ALL OF THEM Democrats and Republicans, voted to extend the Bush taxcuts . . .

;and citizens of the US, remember to vote ONLY for people not worth more than 20 million tops. Anything above (actually anything above 2M IMHO) and you will end up with someone who will not be able to write policy according to the needs of the Joe Public ‘masses’.

The most important thing to remember is that the lands and wealth of the world belong to all men so don’t think you are not part of the country or don’t deserve anything – IT IS YOUR LAND and you have a right to cultivate it and own it (at least enough for subsistence and living space purposes) :

Just remember not to vote plutocrats (check this link below) and only vote for a Congressman that will vote for distribution of land as detailed above. Get out there and tell everyone how to vote and who to vote for!

If you own that land or don’t have to move in a month or few, ‘earth bag housing’ will certainly be viable. The problems that can plague those who do not own the home or land are severe, but the ability to move also leaves a population less vulnerable to abuse by the government or even individual incompatible neighbourhoods themselves.

So the attraction of the EDAR and perhaps a mobile housing paradigm to prevent further strife and abuses, (so that government cannot take citizens and residents for granted to raise quit rents add new taxes, forbid from building things like awnings or even grow veggies in some cases see below :

;had begun to be as necessary as solid walls (no point if you are in a hostile neighbourhood, temporary places could be considered as ‘hostile’ since you would have to move, or if your government practices apartheid for instance. The earth bag idea is however quite practical and will save alot of funds, make people less dependent on subsides. But for mobility and ability to choose one’s environs, mobility is needed.

Interested

Finally, it is a start for trailer park class. China should learn this from USA. Out of sight, out of mind.

Anon

But for the space issue, this is actually an upgrade from those hideous pigeon coop terrace style apartments or rabbit hutch landed terraces. At least you can choose your neighbours and relocate if you need to – to anywhere if anything.

Even those one level up duplexes (semi-detached landed houses) are a glorified farce, try this one : ” The dream of America is to live in a duplex and share a yard. Why would anyone want to threaten that great future? Answer me that and I’ll show you a green dog. ” Congressman Alex Shrub (“Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”).

Detached bungalows with 5 feet of space between them are as bad as Terraces, unless you like to know what and whens cooking as well as listen in (it is a criminal offense and show of bad breeding) to your neighbours. Heck even the smell of detergent wafts far enough in the low grade bungalows of 6000 sqft and below that are sold as ‘luxury’ homes. Too dense, and these are typical complaints.

China is a socialist country with great wealth now, how about free state housing along the lines of high ceilinged ‘Half Acre Gardens’ 20,000 sq ft apartments for dignified living? If they don;t have work they can plant non-GMO foods until the economy picks up.

China’s families if raised in high density ‘jar’ like environments, end up as ‘jar heads’, and low aura environments and massive inflation cause surly citizens and revolutions etc., share the wealth . . .

MrT

just had a horrible thought, imagine if they discovered caravans.
China would grind to a halt has they tried to back em up.

Tengu

Song of the article:

“Ramblin’ Man”
Allman Brothers.

Jess

As the netizen said above, looks like they have money to build this mobile caravan to travel around China on holiday!

But where is the toilet and shower?

Disgusted

If you read the other article on ChinaSmack (“Chinese Dead Sea” Crowded With Visitors Escaping Summer Heat )…. will give you the answer you seek…

Rick in China

This is China. I once asked a guy at a BBQ place in Sanya where to find the nearest toilet, he stood up, spread his arms wide to make an announcement, said, “Everywhere! Anywhere!”.

RE: Shower. Have you ever been on public transportation or cramped elevators? I don’t think that’s everyone’s highest priority :D

eddie9684

okay.. wheres the toilet?

mr. weiner

the nearest roadside curb, wall, tree or cliff edge if you prefer a long drop.

eattot

i think this couple just did this for some romantic reason or be cool.
after one week still nice, after one month hmm a bit troublesome, after three months, oh no!

Do the math. He paid 14100rmb per square meter for that piece of shit little box on wheels.

I happen to know Kunming housing market is a fraction of that cost per square meter, and this fool would be much better off getting himself a down payment on an apartment which will accrue value rather than dump his money into this box on wheels which will ONLY LOSE value. Very bad investment. Ingenious? How? He created a shitty version of an RV, there’s nothing genius about it.

Anon

It’s not about size or rentability. It’s the mobility, ability to escape disaster and choose neighbours that cannot be obtained with a fixed property. Nomadic values are entirely lost on the domesticated urbanite.

I don’t know if a 2012 might occur, but couple his truck with stored pontoons and an ability to float like a boat and propel itself on water and his mobility and his survivability increases by a ratio of the mass of sea to land.

Put VTOL Fusion Engines (which the Chinese had better be inventing, – CCP needs to crack those whips ad point our boffins in the right direction if they are still floundering with 80s industrial era tech) and life and even the concept of citizenship will never be the same again.

Meanwhile everyone in fixed housing look set to LOSE EVERYTHING in an disaster scenario. Ready to install a nuke and water proof dome over all major cities? It might actually cost 14100 RMB ironically !

Anon

14100 RMB per square foot . . .

Dan Danger

It is like an RV actually.

Sim

In the west and the south, they have caravan where it is their mobile home: go where stay where. Why be slave to your house and no quality of life?

Willy Wonka

Very clever. And he seems to have snagged a fine wife to boot. A rare feat in this day and age.

civilization

this society is so realistic, i dont want to say anything about increasing house prices, and high commodity prices, fuck